Childhood

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. His father's
connections and well- paying job as a physician, and his mother's
connection the Wedgwood family, placed the Darwin family securely
in the realm of the liberal and well-off. Robert Darwin was forty-three at
the time Charles was born, at the height of his reputation and energy
as a physician. Charles already had four older siblings: Marianne,
Caroline, Susan, and his brother Erasmus. With scarlet fever and
other diseases in the air, the major concern of the household was
the health and growth of the children. Susannah was in charge of
the house, the children, and the finances, while Robert occupied himself
with his patients.

Charles spent his early years at a house called The Mount
in Shrewsbury, which Robert had had built in the early years of
his marriage to Susannah. He seems to have been a quiet, solitary
child; he had no great difficulty making friends, but his best
times were spent on exploratory walks, on which he would collect
whatever he could find.

Charles's mother died when he was only 8. In 1817 she
started growing ill, with gastrointestinal symptoms that were probably
a sign of either a severe ulcer or stomach cancer. She died on
Thursday, July 15, 1817. Robert dedicated himself even more into
his medical practice even more than he had before, leaving the
household to be run mostly by his elder daughters Marianne and Caroline.
Robert had always been an enormous presence in the house when he
returned from work at the end of the day, but it had been tolerable
as long as his mood was good. Now, however, he was almost always
irritable and depressed. The house remained comfortable and well
kept, but gloomy. In later descriptions of his childhood, Charles
wrote that he remembered very little of his mother, particularly
since his sisters forbade him to talk about her.

Charles looked up to his sisters as teachers. School for
Darwin was never a joyful thing. He was first educated by Caroline,
and then spent a year at a day school in Shrewsbury. From there
he was sent to the Shrewsbury School, about a mile away from The
Mount, at the age of 8. The Shrewsbury School was a boarding school
run by the elder Samuel Butler that focused almost exclusively on
the classics, a subject which Darwin found nearly useless. His
lack of interest in school led his parents to worry that he had
not inherited his fair share of the Darwin energy and intelligence.
Towards the end of his schooling he made up somewhat for his mediocre
performance by conducting experiments with his older brother Erasmus in
a shed in the back of The Mount. They conducted experiments from
1822 until Erasmus set off for Christ's College, at the University
of Cambridge, to study medicine. Darwin later looked back on the
experience as an invaluable introduction to scientific experimentation.

As Darwin grew older, collecting became his major hobby.
He collected minerals and insects. He also became a bird-watcher,
and was fond of hunting. Later, during his Edinburgh years, his
passion for hunting became so great that his father was afraid
that he would become an "idle hunting man." After killing his
first snipe, he wrote "my excitement was so great that I had much
difficulty in reloading my gun from the trembling of my hands."
Hunting combined the joys of collecting with the thrill of the
chase. It was a skill that would come in handy later in life. Charles's
long, solitary walk started to become even longer adventures. He
traveled some with his older brother Erasmus, into Wales and on
visits to the Wedgwood cousins at Maer.

At the age of sixteen, Charles was taken aside by his
father Robert and told that it was time for him to make something
of himself. He would go to the University of Edinburgh, where his
father and grandfather had trained to become doctors. His brother
Erasmus, who had been studying medicine at the University of Cambridge, would
join him there.